Former state Sen. Jill Tokuda — who had been running for lieutenant governor in the upcoming Aug. 13 Democratic primary — disrupted state and federal races Tuesday by filing federal election papers to run for the congressional seat held by U.S. Rep. Kai Kahele.
Tokuda, a Democrat from Kaneohe, will challenge the first-term congressman, who represents the neighbor islands and rural parts of Oahu, including Kaneohe.
In only his second year representing Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, Kahele has attracted negative coverage in local and national media for his absenteeism from Washington, D.C., and his record of having other representatives cast votes in his name, an allowable practice used by Republicans and Democrats known as “proxy voting.”
Tokuda was not immediately available for comment on her interest in challenging Kahele.
Out of five Democratic candidates running for lieutenant governor, Tokuda was the only one to have previously run a statewide campaign, losing the 2018 lieutenant governor’s race by less than 3% of the vote to current Lt. Gov. Josh Green, who is the front-runner in this year’s gubernatorial race.
Tokuda is the mother of 12- and 13-year-old boys who attend the same Kaneohe public schools that their parents did. Tokuda previously told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that she understands the struggles of working families trying to build better lives for their own children.
Even though she’s been out of elected office, Tokuda has been busy helping a special House COVID- 19 committee track federal funds and working as a consultant for foundations and nonprofit groups and as co-director of CyberHawaii. She also serves as external director of Maui’s Nisei Memorial Center honoring nisei veterans of World War II, including her grandfather, who served in the Military Intelligence Service out of Maui.
Her great-grandfather was interned at Oahu’s Honouliuli internment camp and then sent to the internment camp in Santa Fe, N.M.
She previously called the experiences of her grandfather and great-grandfather “lessons in resiliency.”
Speculation has been swirling around Kahele even before recent revelations about his proxy voting, including questions that he has declined to answer about a potential gubernatorial run against Green, who has massive support from Native Hawaiians and Hawaii island, which both Green and Kahele represented while in the state Senate.
Now that Tokuda is officially challenging Kahele, other well-known political figures could join the congressional race, which could upset other state and county races this year.
Kahele, the father of three girls, lives in Hilo.
He played volleyball for the University of Hawaii and was a member of teams that went to back-to-back NCAA Final Four tournaments in 1995 and 1996.
Following the death of his father, state Sen. Gil Kahele, Gov. David Ige appointed Kai Kahele to fill his father’s seat in 2016, representing Hilo. Kahele won reelection in 2016 and 2018.
He fought in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom as a C-17 Globemaster III and C-130 Hercules pilot. He remains a lieutenant colonel in the Hawaii Air National Guard, based out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
He also continues to fly Airbus A330 wide-body planes on domestic and international routes for Hawaiian Airlines.
